Volunteering is generally considered an altruisticactivity, intended to promote good or improvehuman quality of life, but people also volunteerfor their own skill development, to meet others, tomake contacts for possible employment, to have fun,and a variety of other reasons that could beconsidered self-serving.

Volunteerism is the act of selflessly giving yourlife to something you believe free of pay. Althoughif a person volunteers they may not earn money, itproduces a feeling of self-worth and volunteers earnrespect and favors instead of money.

Volunteering takes many forms and is performed by awide range of people. Many volunteers are specificallytrained in the areas they work in, such as medicine,education, or emergency rescue. Other volunteers serveon an as-needed basis, such as in response to a naturaldisaster or for a beach-cleanup.

RSVP is America’s largest volunteer network forpeople age 55 and over. Join RSVP and you joinnearly 500,000 volunteers across the country whoare tackling tough issues in their communities.

RSVP offers a full range of volunteer opportunitieswith thousands of local and national organizations.With RSVP, you choose how and where you want toserve. You choose the amount of time you want togive. And you choose whether you want to draw onyour skills or develop new ones. In short, you findthe opportunity that’s right for you.

With RSVP, you’ll receive pre-service orientation,training from the organization where you serve, andsupplemental insurance while on duty.

And remember: When you volunteer, you’re not justhelping others—you’re helping yourself. Volunteeringleads to new discoveries and new friends. Plus,studies show that volunteering helps you live longerand promotes a positive outlook on life.

Most older adults who volunteer are highlyreliable, want to be useful, have a senseof the public interest and public good, andare energetic enough to do the job if youdescribe it to them accurately.

In addition, when they see the big picture,they’ll do menial but essential tasks cheer-fully, providing they are treated well. Mostof them have life wisdom to offer and canmake appropriate complex decisions if theyunderstand your organizational culture.

Best of all, they have a very strong workethic and are highly reliable about doingwhat they say they will do.

So if you are in a neighborhood or localgovernment situation where you are havingto lay off paid workers, perhaps you canreplace some of those functions by traininga group of senior citizen volunteers.